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ARTICLE · 08 FEBRUARY 2024

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Australian Government Releases Draft Climate Disclosure Laws

Jones Day
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The Australian government has released an exposure draft of the Treasury Laws Amendment Bill 2024: Climate-related financial disclosure (Cth) ("the Bill").

GlobalAntitrust/Competition Law
Giles Elliott
Giles Elliott
Christopher Lovrien
Christopher Lovrien
Holly Sara
Holly Sara
Howard Sidman
Howard Sidman
Prudence Smith
Prudence Smith
Peter Wang
Peter Wang
Ottilia Thompson
Ottilia Thompson
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In Short

The Situation: The Australian government has released its widely anticipated exposure draft legislation for the introduction of Australia's national mandatory climate-related financial disclosures regime.

The Result: The draft legislation, if enacted, will apply to Australian companies, financial institutions, superannuation funds, asset managers and other reporting entities who meet certain threshold requirements. It will amend Australia's existing financial reporting framework to create, for the first time, mandatory obligations for entities to prepare and disclose annual "sustainability reports", to have those reports audited by independent auditors and to maintain "sustainability records". Implementation of the regime is proposed to be phased in over three years, with obligations for entities falling within Group 1 commencing from as soon as 1 July 2024.

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